Celtic easily advanced to the Scottish Cup semifinals after defeating Hearts by three goals for the second time in four days

Celtic easily advanced to the Scottish Cup semifinals after defeating Hearts by three goals for the second time in four days.

Celtic defeats Hearts 3-0 to go to the Scottish Cup semifinals.

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At Tynecastle, Aaron Mooy celebrates his early goal.

At Tynecastle, Aaron Mooy gave Celtic the lead with a beautiful first goal.

Celtic easily defeated Hearts by three goals for the second time in four days to advance to the Scottish Cup semifinals.

Before halftime, Kyogo Furuhashi added a spectacular flicked finish and Aaron Mooy smashed in an early goal.

Late in the contest, Celtic's Cameron Carter-Vickers scored a header to demonstrate their superiority at Tynecastle.

Toby Sibbick was prevented from scoring by a superb stop from Joe Hart at 1-0, and the home team had little further threats.

Hearts finished second last season, but they have hopes of moving up.With Celtic's lightning-fast start, the team's chances of winning their first domestic sweep in five seasons appeared dim.

For Zander Clark to block a shot from Reo Hatate inside the first minute, he had to appear energised. The goalkeeper for Hearts was retrieving the ball from his net 60 seconds later.

After slaloming down the right, Jota found the Australian with a cutback, which was first-timed from 14 yards and drove high into the net.

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Hearts struggled to match the pace and intent of the visitors throughout the first 25 minutes of the league match on Wednesday at Celtic Park, where they had scored early before losing 3-1. Hearts also barely left their own half during this time.

Although, itIt required an outstanding save from Hart to keep Celtic ahead, as the 35-year-old made a sprawling reflex stop to deflect Sibbick's close-range drive. Then, quickly rising, Hart stopped James Hill from grabbing the loose ball.

Clark was once more active, blocking another shot from Hatate and deflecting a follow-up with his foot, but he was unable to stop Kyogo from deftly directing in a drilled cross from Alistair Johnston right before halftime.

The elusive Japanese striker once again escaped his defenders to score a superb clip for his 26th goal of the year.

Hearts came out strong to start the second half, but Clark to to his total of saves with a strong block on Jota's angled shot.

without the top scorer too challenging to keep them at bay.

The third goal was scored shortly after when Carter-Vickers had the easy chore of heading in a curling free-kick from replacement Matt O'Riley. Hatate had blasted in a shot as Clark punched clear from a corner, with Hill making a critical clearing, but the fourth goal didn't take long to arrive.

Aaron Mooy was the star performer.

Celtic's explosive start sets the tone for the game, according to the analysts

Hearts was totally suffocated by Ange Postecoglou's team as they imposed their influence on the game from the opening whistle.

Despite the game's slower tempo in the second half, Celtic's excellent midfield trio quickly took control of the action and dominated significant portions of it.

Stephen Kingsley was too frequently left uncovered as Celtic's right wing provided both of their goals in the opening period.Whenever there was a chance, Jota and Johnston rushed ahead. In order to torture Michael Smith, Jota then changed wings.

Hearts, who were without a few important players, will remember Hart's amazing save to save Sibbick, but Robbie Neilson's team never really recovered after giving up such an early goal and were responsible for the subsequent goals by losing concentration at the back.

In their search for a means to get back, they were also rather predictable, hurling fervent long balls Josh Ginnelly's way.

Celtic won their 13th straight game overall after scoring five goals against Morton and St. Mirren in the previous two rounds. They easily could have scored a couple more goals today.

Robbie Neilson, head coach of Hearts, quoted the managers as saying: "We were Go man-for-man when attempting to press. In the beginning, you want more contact; make sure we don't let the ball pass us by.

"The fact that we conceded a goal so quickly hurt us, but I thought the crowd was fantastic. There was still a strong energy present. Losing the goal just before halftime was a serious blow to us as we had just begun to regroup."

Ange Postecoglou, Celtic's manager: "We got off to a good start. We believed that early control of the game was crucial when playing at Tynecastle with so much at stake.

"Our early football was of an exceptional calibre, in my opinion. Our goal was good, but we definitely could have scored a few more. That signalled the beginning of our stall.rest of the game. That was largely under our control.

"We have travelled with two people away from home on Sunday, Wednesday, and Saturday. Week has been successful."

What will happen next?

Next Saturday (5:00 GMT), when Hearts travel to Aberdeen, runaway league leaders Celtic face Hibernian in Premiership action.